First responder mental health, traumatic events and rural and remote experience

Abstract

<p>First responders (another term for emergency service professionals) refers to personnel that respond to traumatic and life-threatening incidents in the pre-hospital/community setting and include paramedics (ambulance officers, emergency medical technician [EMT]/ medic), police officers and firefighters (Jones et al., 2022). First responders are often called to respond to situations that are high risk, traumatic and complex; these situations have the potential to endanger the personal safety of the responder and impact their mental health (Jones et al., 2022; Lee et al., 2022). Situations first responders are often called to can include unpredictable, violent or complex situations, situations involving biohazardous agents or contagions, responding to large scale disasters and unstable environments (e.g. hurricanes, bush fires, floods), responding to life-threatening situations, accidents involving deaths and situations that are traumatic, emotional and involve human suffering (Jones et al., 2022; Lee et al., 2022). It is known that health workers can experience intense emotions and ongoing distress in the aftermath of such events (Buhlmann et al., 2022).</p>